Merxheim is a small town and Ortsgemeinde in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Bad Sobernheim. The town's economy is traditionally based on wine making. The town is partnered with Merxheim, Haut-Rhin in France. The town is located around 100 km. east of the city of Luxembourg and around 90 km southwest of Frankfurt. Merxheim is located on the border of Moselle Franconian dialects and Hessian dialects.
Geography Location Merxheim lies on the south bank of the Nahe between the gemstone town of Idar-Oberstein and the spa town and district seat of Bad Kreuznach.
Neighbouring municipalities Clockwise from the north, Merxheim's neighbours are the municipalities of Martinstein, Weiler bei Monzingen, Monzingen, Meddersheim, Kirschroth, Limbach, Heimweiler, Meckenbach, Hochstetten-Dhaun and Simmertal, all of which likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district.
Constituent communities Also belonging to Merxheim are the outlying homesteads of Gänsmühle, Kornsmühle and Weinelsmühle.Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz – Amtliches Verzeichnis der Gemeinden und Gemeindeteile , Seite 17 (PDF; 2,2 MB) German Wikipedia also lists former names for Kornsmühle (Eltgesmühle or Iltismühle) and Weinelsmühle (Franzenmühle), along with yet another outlying homestead that is not listed by the State Office for Statistics, namely Estrella, along with a former name for it (Kauzenmühle).
History In the oldest document thus far found that deals with Merxheim, from 1061, Archbishop of Trier Eberhard donated the estate of Merkedesheim to Saint Simeon's Foundation in Trier. In the confirmation document from Archbishop Adalbert of Mainz (d. 1137), the name Merxheim appears for the first time. In 1350, a knight, Sir Conrad of Merxheim was mentioned. His two children, Rorich and Adelheid, shared between themselves their father's allodial holdings (lands held in fief) in Merxheim. After Rorich's death, Hunolstein and Hohenburg each took a share in the "Schloss" and village. Thus, a one-half share of Merxheim passed as an allodial and Imperially immediate holding to the House of the Vögte of Hunolstein, while the other one-half share passed to Weyrich of Hohenburg. In the War of the Succession of Landshut (1504-1505), the army of Duke Alexander of Zweibrücken plundered the village. In 1504, Merxheim was burnt to the ground. The outbreak of the Plague that struck in September 1612 claimed 228 lives over only four months. The French Revolution ended the lordships that had held sway over Merxheim. The Schloss was acquired by the Catholic Church and thereafter served as a House of God. From 1798 to 1814, Merxheim was French and found itself grouped into the Canton of Meisenheim, the Arrondissement of Birkenfeld and the Department of Sarre. After Revolutionary and Napoleonic French rule, Merxheim passed in 1815 under the terms of the Congress of Vienna to the Kingdom of Prussia, only to pass the very next year to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg, under whose sovereignty it remained until the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, when the Kingdom of Prussia, having achieved hegemony over a great many German states in this war, annexed, among other places, Merxheim and assigned it to its new Rhine Province and, within this, to the Meisenheim district. Five years later, Merxheim found itself in the German Empire, but it remained in Prussia, one of Imperial, Weimar and Nazi Germany's constituent states, until 1945, when Prussia as a distinct entity passed into history with its dissolution under Allied occupation. Other catastrophes also marked Merxheim's history, such as the 1778 and 1788 cloudbursts, whose attendant mudslides destroyed houses. The greatest catastrophe that ever befell the village is still the one that happened on 24 July 1870. Some children playing in a barn managed to start a fire that led to such a great blaze that within three hours, 107 houses and their associated commercial buildings went up in flames. The old "Nürnberger Turm", a tower that for centuries had been held to be Merxheim's defining landmark, was thoroughly gutted and was later torn down. The Evangelical church, too, was swallowed up in the great fire, although a new one was built within a few years on the same spot. In 1935, there was a further shift in the local administrative structure. The Amt of Meddersheim was placed under the same administration as the Amt of Sobernheim – a kind of "personal union" – and then in 1940 it was finally merged into that Amt. In the course of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate, Merxheim was grouped into the Verbandsgemeinde of Bad Sobernheim in 1970.History
Jewish history As early as the Middle Ages, there were individual Jews living in Merxheim. In 1301, Abraham von Merxheim was named as a creditor of Counts Simon and Johannes of Sponheim. Thereafter, though, no Jews were mentioned as being in the village until the mid 16th century – when they were turned out of the village by the Vögte of Hunolstein. The Vögte then forbade their subjects to do any further business with Jews or to engage in moneylending with them. In 1560, Jud Aaron (the title "Jud" identified him as Jewish), who lived in Simmern unter Dhaun (now called Simmertal), complained to the Rhinegravial administrator in Daun about Jews being forbidden to do business in Merxheim. The modern Jewish community arose in the 17th century, when a few Jewish families settled in Merxheim, mainly in the area of the Judengasse ("Jews' Lane"), which still exists today, although it is now known as Römerstraße ("Romans' Street"). Towards the end of the 18th century, the number of Jews in the village had shrunk: In 1801, there was only one Jewish family still living in Merxheim, Jacob Bär's family, who lived at the so-called Freihaus ("Free House"), a former noble seat across the street from the church (today: Hauptstraße 22). In 1801, they fell victim to Schinderhannes (see below). In the 19th century, the number of Jewish inhabitants developed as follows: in 1808, there were 37, of whom 21 were children; in 1855, 52; in 1861, 65 (peak); in 1895, 43 (of all together about 1,300 inhabitants). Also belonging to the Jewish community in Merxheim were the Jews living in Simmern unter Dhaun (Simmertal), although they did have their own prayer room. The Jewish families lived mostly in very humble economic circumstances. This explains the relatively quick flight to the towns and cities, as was the case with the horse dealer Daniel Fried II, who together with nine family members moved in 1870 to Sobernheim, where his particular trade was seeing a great upswing as a result of both the railway connections and the then current Franco-Prussian War. In the way of institutions, there were a synagogue (see Synagogue below), a Jewish school, a mikveh and a graveyard (see Jewish graveyard below). There was already Jewish schooling by 1829: religious instruction in the Oberamt of Meisenheim was held at two venues, alternating between Meisenheim and Merxheim. The village's Jewish parents made efforts at that time to have their children schooled together with those from neighbouring Bärweiler, but this came to naught. One member of Merxheim's Jewish community was a soldier in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), Leopold Loeb. He died in the year 1922. His name is to be found on the war memorial in the village centre. One member of Merxheim's Jewish community died as a result of wounds sustained in the First World War, Karl Michel (d. November 1918), while another, Arthur Loeb, was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class. About 1924, when there was still a Jewish community of 31 persons in Merxheim, the community's leader was L. Loeb. In 1932, it was Bernhard Michel.
In 1933, the year when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seized power, 24 Jews were still living in Merxheim. In the years that followed, though, all of them moved away or even emigrated in the face of the boycotting of their businesses, the progressive stripping of their rights and repression, all brought about by the Nazis. By early November 1938, only two were left in the village, but they left after Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938). According to the Gedenkbuch – Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945 ("Memorial Book – Victims of the Persecution of the Jews under National Socialist Tyranny") and Yad Vashem, of all Jews who either were born in Merxheim or lived there for a long time, 17 were victims of Nazi persecution (birthdates in brackets): Albert Fried (1870) Josef Fried (1868) Moses Fried (1866) Arthur Löb (1891) Bertha Löb née Hirsch (1862) Ida Löb (1927) Klara Löb née Bloch (1900) Rosa Löb née Hirsch (1857) Bernhard Michel (1866) Berthold Michel (1895) Blanche Michel née Seckler (1904)- wife of Walter Michel - she lived with him in Luxemburg, not in Merxheim Elvira Michel née Joseph (1869) Fajga Michel née Benedik (1904) - wife of Berthold Michel - she lived with him in Cologne and Amsterdam, not in Merxheim Jakob Michel (1900) Salomon (Sally) Michel (1898) Walter Michel (1901) Lina Siegel née Mayer (1880)Jewish history
Criminal history Like many places in the region, Merxheim can claim to have had its dealings with the notorious outlaw Schinderhannes (or Johannes Bückler, to use his true name). In 1801, he and some of his accomplices committed a home invasion in Merxheim. The victims were the village's only Jewish inhabitants, the Family Bär. Their house was pillaged and the household head Jacob Bär was badly injured.Criminal history
Population development Merxheim's population development since Napoleonic times is shown in the table below. The figures for the years from 1871 to 1987 are drawn from census data:Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz – Regionaldaten Year Inhabitants 1815 992 1835 N.A. 1871 1,281 1905 1,262 1939 1,190 Year Inhabitants 1950 1,338 1961 1,435 1970 1,433 1987 1,374 2005 1,465
Religion As at 30 November 2013, there are 1,459 full-time residents in Merxheim, and of those, 843 are Evangelical (57.779%), 374 are Catholic (25.634%), 7 are Lutheran (0.48%), 1 is United Methodist (0.069%), 15 (1.028%) belong to other religious groups and 219 (15.01%) either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation.Religion
Politics Municipal council The council is made up of 16 council members, who were elected by proportional representation at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman. The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:Kommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009, Gemeinderat Year SPD CDU FWG Total 2009 7 3 6 16 seats 2004 7 4 5 16 seats
Mayor Merxheim's mayor is Egon Eckhardt (SPD), and his deputies are Elke Schmidt (SPD), Thomas Bendlage (CDU) and Fethi Bayer (SPD).Merxheim's council
Coat of arms The German blazon reads: Über goldenem Schildfuß, darin ein roter Balken über drei roten Schindeln, von Rot und Silber gespalten. Vorne ein silberner Schrägbalken belegt mit drei roten Rosen, hinten ein roter Burgturm mit Krüppelwalmdach.
The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Per pale gules a bend argent with three roses of the field and argent a castle tower with half-hip roof of the first, the base Or with fess above three billets of the first.